What's the biggest challenge you face as an online course creator? We asked seven top industry experts to weigh in—what they see as the biggest challenges, what's really going on beneath the surface, and their concrete solutions. Their answers are as relevant today as when we first collected them—perhaps even more so.
Danny Iny (Mirasee): You Don't Need a Big Audience
Danny Iny is the founder of Mirasee and creator of the Course Builder's Laboratory, which has graduated over 4,000 course-building entrepreneurs.
Challenge: Many aspiring creators feel they need to establish themselves as thought leaders—building a large audience and mailing list—before they can even consider building a course.
What's really going on: Sloppy assumptions about marketing. If your course is unfocused, you might need to reach thousands to get a few sign-ups. But if it's super focused, you don't need a large audience at all. Danny has seen creators launch successfully with no existing audience—if they do it right.
Solution: Instead of rushing to create content, rush to find out what people want. Build your course around validated demand. That single shift makes the difference between building something people need and something they don't.
Try this: Before writing a single lesson, have 5 conversations with potential students. Ask them what they're struggling with and what outcome they'd pay for. Let their answers shape your course.
Hear more from Danny Iny on our podcast →
Jennifer Louden: Just Start Teaching
Jennifer Louden is a personal growth pioneer and author of seven books on well-being, who has been leading workshops and online learning since 2000.
Challenge: Realizing that being in an actual teaching relationship with students is far better than doing another training, more planning, or endlessly preparing.
What's really going on: Fear—including fear of choosing a topic and a lack of role models. Many creative types list five or six subjects they want to teach, then get stuck thinking they have to pick just one. Instead, they could combine areas: traveling alone + healthy eating on the road + minimalist travel, for example.
Solution: Look for the overlap between your areas of interest and brainstorm with three ideal students what they'd get from your class. Then do it—invite 10 people to your living room (or Zoom!) and see how it flies.
Try this: List your top 3 interests or areas of expertise. Look for where two or more overlap. That intersection is often your most compelling course topic.
Dr. Kelly Edmonds: The Content Parceling Formula
Dr. Kelly Edmonds is an instructional design expert who has won seven educational awards and helped thousands of people create better learning experiences.
Challenge: Not knowing how to break down content into effective lessons, create useful learning activities, or choose the right format for different types of content.
What's really going on: Creating a course is like good parenting—you can admire it from afar, but until you break down the strategies, you can't replicate them. Most people haven't studied instructional design, so they don't know how to structure an effective learning path.
Solution: Kelly's formula for a 3-4 week course:
- No more than 5 modules with up to 4 lessons each
- Each lesson: 10-20 minutes of content in 1-2 minute chunks
- 1-2 activities per lesson to reinforce learning
More from Kelly Edmonds on our podcast → · Try the Course Outline Generator →
Janelle Allen (Zen Courses): Start with Your Learners
Janelle Allen is an entrepreneur and course designer with a decade of experience building courses for corporations and colleges using principles of adult learning.
Challenge: "Where do I start?" and "How do I price my course?"
What's really going on: Overwhelm. People see successful courses and want the same results, but they skip strategy and jump straight to technology and revenue questions. Many course gurus play up the money aspect, which distracts from the actual work of designing a good learning experience.
Solution: Start with your learners. Have you validated their interest in your course idea? Set learning goals based on their needs? Know what they want to be able to do after completing your course? Engaging with learners before you develop saves time, stress, and money—they'll literally tell you what they want to learn.
For pricing, remember: there's no single right answer. Use tiered packages, value-based pricing, and multiple price points (but no more than three). Pricing should only come up after you can clearly assess the value of what you've built.
Dr. Carrie Rose: Make an Offer
Dr. Carrie Rose works with entrepreneurs and businesses to create high-quality online courses, known for her strategic training methods and research-based approach.
Challenge: "What should I charge for my course?"
What's really going on: Before pricing, Carrie diagnoses the bigger picture: Do you know who you are and what you want to be known for? Do you know your target demographic? Have you done market research? Have you built relational equity with your audience? Pricing is the last question, not the first.
Solution: Once you've done the homework, make an offer. You have to sell a product—or try to sell one—to see what the market will actually bear. Don't be afraid to fail brilliantly. A failed launch gives you better data than no launch ever will.
Jeanine Blackwell: Solve One Problem
Jeanine Blackwell is the creator of Create 6-Figure Courses® and is ranked among the Top 40 Business Coaches in the world.
Challenge: "Is this the right course idea—the one that will sell?"
What's really going on: Creators ask "What should I teach?" instead of the more powerful question: "How can I help my clients solve a problem?" When you focus on solving a problem, it forces you to edit content down to what's essential and transforms a course from "that's interesting..." to "where do I sign up?"
Solution: Get into your ideal client's mindset. A LinkedIn expert's first idea might be "How to use LinkedIn for small business." But dig deeper: clients are actually struggling to find new clients. The better course becomes "How to find paying clients on LinkedIn"—infinitely more compelling.
Try this: Write down what you want to teach. Then ask "why does my student care about this?" three times in a row. The final answer is your real course topic.
Jon Morrow (Smart Blogger): It's a Real Business
Jon Morrow is CEO of Smart Blogger, one of the largest writing education sites on the internet.
Challenge: Overwhelm by the sheer size of the task—plus the fear of investing months into something that makes zero money.
What's really going on: Misrepresentation of the opportunity. Can you make millions teaching online courses? Yes—but it's as complicated and risky as starting a company. Too many people treat course creation as a side project when it's actually a business.
Solution: Jon's three rules:
- Check your motivation. If you're only doing this for easy money, online courses aren't it. This is a labor of love—you have to genuinely want to teach.
- Start embarrassingly simple. Record calls where someone interviews you. Email buyers a link. No videos, no fancy membership site. It won't be pretty, but you'll learn more from shipping something imperfect than from perfecting something you never release.
- Study marketing first. Course quality matters, but the people who succeed are the ones who learn to reach their audience effectively. Spend your first year getting good at the marketing side.
Navigating These Challenges in the AI Era
Everything these experts identified—validation, fear, pricing, overwhelm—is still the core of what holds creators back. But the 2026 landscape adds new dimensions to each challenge:
The information barrier is gone. Students can ask ChatGPT any factual question and get an instant answer. This doesn't make courses obsolete—it makes transformation-focused courses more valuable. If your course only delivers information, it's competing with free AI. If it delivers guided practice, accountability, community, and personalized feedback, it's irreplaceable.
Validation is faster than ever. Danny Iny's advice to "rush to find out what people want" is easier to follow now. You can test a course concept by running a free workshop, publishing a mini-guide, or even asking your audience directly on social media. The tools for validating your course idea are better than they've ever been.
Trust is the new differentiator. After years of overpromising gurus, audiences are skeptical. Jeanine Blackwell's advice to focus on solving one specific problem—not making grand claims—is the antidote. Show real results from real students. Be honest about who your course is and isn't for.
Starting simple is more accessible. Jon Morrow's "embarrassingly simple" first course is now even easier to create. Platforms like Ruzuku let you build a course in an afternoon, and you can start with live sessions before recording anything permanent.
What to Do Next
Every expert here agrees on one thing: the biggest mistake is waiting too long to start. Whether your challenge is validation, pricing, content structure, or just plain fear—the solution is always some version of "take one small step."
- If you're stuck on your idea: Validate your course idea with real conversations
- If you're stuck on pricing: Read our pricing guide or use the pricing calculator
- If you're stuck on structure: Generate a course outline in minutes
- If you just need to start: Try Ruzuku free—build your first module today